‘Santa’ Ford delivers Christmas Falcon

FORD’S facelifted Falcon is set to start rolling out to dealerships from the company’s Campbellfield factory in Victoria from Monday, granting many Blue Oval dealers their Christmas wish.

Others might have to wait a week or two for their first truckload of FG Mark II sedans and utes, depending on their distance from the plant, but all should have demonstrator stocks of six-cylinder models by early January.

They will have to wait a few more months for the headline act of the new range – the much-vaunted 2.0-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost Falcon – but in the interim they can console themselves with price cuts of between $2555 and $3655 and more equipment on the six-cylinder cars that now start below $40,000 for the $37,235 XT (plus on-road costs).

As well, Ford engineers have slipped a little extra cheer into dealers’ Christmas stockings – marginal fuel economy gains on the LPG-powered EcoLPI sedans.

While fuel consumption test figures for petrol inline six models remain unchanged in line with the carryover engine made at Geelong, the liquid-injection dedicated LPG models get a 0.2 litres per 100km improvement across all gas-equipped sedan models.

The cut – resulting from on-going calibration tweaks on the engine that was introduced a few months ago in the outgoing FG Falcon – brings the combined fuel consumption figure down to 12.3L/100km on the base XT EcoLPI sedan and 12.4 on other gas-fed sedans (G6, G6E and XR6 EcoLPI).

Carbon dioxide emissions are down by between two and four grams per kilometre, and because LPG produces less carbon-dioxide per litre, the XT EcoLPI sedan becomes the first Falcon to achieve less than 200g/km, sneaking under at 199g/km.

For some reason, the same cuts have not translated to the gas Falcon Ute variants, which remain at 13.9L/100km and 226g/km.

The most efficient petrol Falcons – at least until the EcoBoost models arrive in about April – remain the XT and XR6 automatic sedans at 9.9L/100km and 236g/km, rising to 12L/100km for the XR6 Turbo sedan (12.7L/100km for the XR6 Turbo ute).

Rival Holden’s six-cylinder Commodore has an official combined fuel figure of 8.9L/100km for the 3.0-litre SIDI sedan, rising to 9.5L/100km for the 3.6-litre auto models.

Although no fuel figures for the EcoBoost Falcon have been released, Ford insiders have hinted that the 177kW turbocharged, direct-injected engine should deliver significant fuel savings and eclipse the best from the Commodore range.